This site has gone through a lot of versions, and every iteration taught me something new about development, design, hosting, and the craft of building for the web.
Each update moves through the same workflow: design in Figma, build in React, test locally, push to GitHub, and ship the final page live.
This Figma screen is where the page gets mapped out first. It is where the layout, spacing, colors, and overall visual direction for this website are worked through before anything moves into code.
Once the design feels right, it gets rebuilt in VS Code using React. This is the stage where the static mockup turns into a real page with responsive layout, styling, and the interactions that make this website feel more polished.
The localhost preview is where the page gets checked in the browser while changes are still being made. It makes it easy to test spacing, typography, animation timing, and content updates in real time before anything is published.
When an update is ready, the project gets pushed to GitHub and sent through the deployment flow for this site. That step is what takes the work from a local build into a version that can actually be shipped.
After deployment finishes, the newest version of the website is live as the final product. This is the part where all of the design work, code changes, and testing come together in the finished page that people actually see.
Shared hosting and first launch
The WordPress site started on a shared hosting account, and it didn't take long to outgrow it. Load times were slow, and getting updates live was more of a hassle than it needed to be — tweaking something small still meant wading through a process that felt heavier than it should.
Moving to a dedicated, self-managed server fixed both problems. With full control over the environment, the site got faster and deploying changes became a lot more straightforward. It's the kind of setup that actually gets out of your way and lets you focus on the work.
Building this website has been a comprehensive, hands-on education in modern web development - spanning the full front-end stack, from languages and frameworks to design tooling and deployment.